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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23209651">Impossibly Real</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/HMS_Chill/pseuds/HMS_Chill'>HMS_Chill</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Red White &amp; Royal Blue - Casey McQuiston</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alex is so stupid, Alex put this boy through so much god damn, Canon Compliant, Domestic Fluff, Family Fluff, Fluff, Found Family, He deserves a nice break, LISTEN HERE Y'ALL, M/M, There is not enough Liam/Spencer content here, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, and good news i'm giving it to him, just pure fluff my dudes, liam deserved better, like i love him but come on, not NEARLY enough Liam</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 09:28:00</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,648</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23209651</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/HMS_Chill/pseuds/HMS_Chill</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>As Alex has a whirlwind four years at Georgetown, Liam's time at the University of Texas is a bit more typical. He finds a nice boyfriend, and that boyfriend has a nice family, and it's all far too good to be true.<br/>-<br/>Alternately; I've described this to people as "Spencer's parents all but adopt Liam because HE DESERVES IT"</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Liam/Spencer</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>37</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>141</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Impossibly Real</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Massive thanks to Len (@bansheebabbles) for looking this over for me!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It doesn't quite feel real. There's no way he's meeting Spencer's parents, and no way they'll like him as much as Spencer seems to think they will. Spencer's parents are important to him; they were the first people he came out to. They've been close since he was a kid; his mom lost a pregnancy or something when he was young. And nothing's come of it yet, but with much less grief, Spencer and Liam are getting to be close, too. They'd spent nearly every day talking over winter break, including Christmas Day, so maybe it makes sense that Spencer's parents want to meet Liam. Maybe they'll be upset that he's pulling Spencer away from family time, or maybe they just want to meet their son's friend. Maybe it's normal for parents to want to meet their kids' friends, especially if their kids might start dating said friends. Liam's far from convinced that Spencer is even the slightest bit into him, but their mutual friends seem to think it's only a matter of time. One in particular has been trying to set them up since November.

So, even if this might be nothing, Liam spends about forty minutes trying to decide what to wear. He has a snapchat group helping him, but they can't seem to agree on anything; someone says traditional but someone else thinks that's too plain. His next outfit has personality, but someone worries that it won't fit in wherever they're going. Eventually, they agree on something unique but classic just as Spencer texts that they've finished moving in and are headed for Liam's dorm, leaving him no time to shave. So he meets his best friend/crush's parents well dressed but scruffy.

</p><p>They don't seem to mind. They offer their pronouns when they introduce themselves, and they ask him about his classes and his major and lacrosse. Spencer says he loves watching Liam play, and while Liam's blushing, his dad says that they'll have to come up for a game some time. And it's nice. It's really, really nice. And the next week, Spencer asks him out for coffee. Halfway through, they agree that it is, in fact, a date, and Spencer insists on paying for them both. It doesn't feel like it can be real, that he can be arguing about paying for coffee with his boyfriend, but it is. Somethow, impossibly, wonderfully, it's real.  </p><p>It all feels even less real when Spencer casually mentions that, if it's alright, his parents would like to come to a lacrosse game and take them out for dinner afterward. Liam doesn't say that his own parents live in town and don't come to his games. He doesn't say that he'd fully believed Spencer's dad was joking about wanting to come. Instead, he says that would be great. So they come, and they all get dinner together afterward, and this time he's Spencer's boyfriend, and his parents don't mind. It doesn't feel real, but it is somehow. And it takes a bit, but one day he realizes he's calling Spencer's parents more than his own, asking for a third opinion on an internship offer or for a recipe for Spencer's favorite meal. And they don't mind that Spencer's dating a boy, or that he's asking them for help, they just help him and tell him that they're glad to know him. And, somehow, this is his life.</p><p>It's the week before finals and everything is insane when Liam accidentally calls Spencer's mom mid-meltdown instead of Spencer. He nearly panics when he hears her voice, because while they've been getting close, he's still trying to convince her that he's somehow worthy of her son. This version of himself isn't one that he ever wanted her to see, but she doesn't care. It feels too good to be true, but she calls him "honey" and talks him through everything that's stressing him out, staying calm and helping him remember that things will all work out in the end. Two days later, a care package full of homemade bread and snacks and notes of encouragement arrives on his doorstep. That doesn't feel real, either (his parents don't send them, so he's never gotten a care package before), but he takes the box inside and texts her a thank you as he munches on her homemade trail mix and slices some banana bread for breakfast tomorrow. She responds that he'll have to let her know what his favorites are so she can make them next time, and it all seems impossible, but it's real. It's real, and it feels really, really good. </p><p>Spencer goes home to San Antonio for the summer, but his parents end up spending a lot of time in Austin. Liam's staying in his apartment downtown so he can work at his internship (and not live with his parents), and though he sees his parents occasionally, it's much more common for him to see Spencer's. Once his dad is in town with an extra ticket to a baseball game, and another time, his mom offers to take Liam out for coffee so they can swap recipes before she hosts friends. He tells her he always grates the butter when he's making shortbread instead of chopping it, and the next day, she sends him a picture of shortbread cookies and a text about how they're the best ones she's ever made. </p><p>When they move Spencer in for fall semester that year, he suggests they do something outdoors, and Liam doesn't even think before he suggests going to Covert Park. It's the most natural place he can think of; it's where he grew up having picnics and spending time with friends. And he doesn't quite realize it until later, but driving through Tarrytown without seeing his parents doesn't feel strange. It feels normal to lead his boyfriend's family up the stone steps to the overlook, carrying an honest-to-god picnic basket as the sun starts to set. It's golden hour, and Spencer's mom insists on taking pictures, and those pictures end up on Instagram, and it all feels normal somehow. He expected some moment of clarity, some time when it would click that this is the life he gets to live, but it hasn't come. Instead, it's all just settled into a new sense of normalcy that's better than anything he could have ever imagined.</p><p>It feels like it should feel weird, but it doesn't. He was never close to the parents of girls he dated, but that was different for a variety of reasons. He'd been trying harder with his own parents, for starters. By the time he and Spencer got together, he'd all but given up on his parents, figuring he'd ruin any relationship he built with them by coming out anyway. </p><p>Maybe that's why his relationship with Spencer's parents feels so incredible; it's something he's given up on having with his own parents. And maybe that's why, when he and Spencer have their first fight, it feels worse than any other fight he's ever had. It comes just before midterms the spring semester of their junior year, when they're both stressed. Spencer's planning to accept an internship offer in El Paso, a nine hour drive from Austin, and Liam's feeling abandoned, left stuck while everyone else moves on. It comes to shouts and ends with Liam storming out, sitting in his car outside Spencer's apartment for at least twenty minutes before he realizes Spencer's not coming out to try and fix things. </p><p>The next day, he has his first midterm, and Spencer's mom texts him to wish him luck. He can't bring himself to tell her that he'd been stupid and made Spencer mad, so he just thanks her. She sends him a picture of a care package headed his way the next day, and when it arrives two days later, he can bring himself to thank her, but let her know that he and Spencer aren't doing well and she doesn't need to keep being nice to him. She responds that she knows and doesn't care, because she loves him. She and Spencer had talked the night of the fight, and while she thinks they'll get back together soon, she tells him in no uncertain terms that it doesn't matter. He may have started as just Spencer's boyfriend, but he's become family, and they hope that if Spencer does go to El Paso for the summer he knows he's still welcome in San Antonio any time. </p><p>He cried in the car the night he and Spencer fought, but he thinks maybe he cries harder at that. He tells her he loves her, and her husband, and that he's overwhelmingly glad to know them. She replies with a series of heart emojis and a reiteration that she loves him no matter what.</p><p>He'd texted Spencer a few days ago, a quasi-apology where he insinuated that if Spencer cares about him or their relationship, he won't take the internship. Spencer hadn't dignified that with a response. Now, Liam texts him a genuine apology, explaining his fear of losing Spencer but telling him he's already saving up for a plane ticket to come visit and expects to see the best that El Paso has to offer. Spencer calls him, and they talk for a long time. That summer, Spencer takes the internship, and halfway through, his parents surprise Liam with a weekend trip for all three of them to go visit. Maybe it should feel weird that it's so easy to travel and spend time with Spencer's parents. Maybe it should be weird teasing Spencer's dad about getting them to the airport so early, or getting coffee (one cream, three sugars) for Spencer's mom while she naps on his shoulder, but it isn't. Not at all. It feels far more normal than traveling with his own parents would. Somehow, this feels like the most normal thing in the world.</p><p>His whole relationship has started to feel normal. He's gotten used to the drive over to Spencer's house in San Antonio, gotten used to meeting them at a restaurant just past the touristy part of the river walk or coming over for dinner and games. Over the past year, he's found every possible reason to come to San Antonio and swing by to say hello, and he's gotten used to visiting for special events. So, when Spencer's family is doing Thanksgiving on Friday that year, it makes sense to drive over and meet his extended family. He can't quite believe it when no one acts like Spencer having a boyfriend is weird, keeps waiting for someone to yell when Spencer kisses his cheek as he reaches for an extra serving of potatoes, but they don't,and it's all perfect and normal to spend Thanksgiving with his boyfriend. Then he's back for a late Christmas celebration in December, and he's staying at Spencer's for his family's New Year's party, and he wouldn't tell his parents, but Spencer's family holidays are a million times better than his own. He brings gifts for Spencer's parents, and they have one for him sitting under their tree, and he realizes in a heartbeat that visiting their house has started to feel like coming home. Somehow, miraculously, he's started to feel like he belongs here. It's all the most natural, normal thing in the world.</p><p>The normalcy of the relationship is shattered a few months later. Spencer gets a job offer from the company in El Paso, and Liam's already accepted one in Austin. He'll be here for at least a year or two before they transfer him anywhere, and they don't have a location in El Paso. So, when Spencer asks him out to a nice dinner, Liam knows what's coming. Spencer's going to tell him that he took the job, because it's the best career option, so they'll have to either break up or date long distance for a while. And that's fine. Liam can take it, he's sure. He can sit in a nice, public place and be told that the man he loves is abandoning him. It's fine.</p><p>Spencer doesn't drive, so Liam picks him up. He's wearing a suit and greets Liam with a kiss, so maybe this isn't a breakup. In the restaurant, Spencer proposes a toast to Liam's new job, and Liam can feel it coming. He manages to say that they should toast to Spencer's new one in El Paso, too, and his voice barely even shakes as he does. Spencer just blushes and lets his cup dip a bit, rubbing the back of his neck and muttering something about telling them no.</p><p>Liam can't believe it. He'd told them no. They were the best place for his career, but he'd turned them down because El Paso was too far from the people he loves. Instead, he's taken a job in Austin, in the neighborhood where Liam will be working. He says he wants to stay closer to home, and could be talking about his parents, but he takes Liam's hand as he says it and looks him in the eye, and Liam would make out with him right then and there if they weren't in a crowded restaurant. </p><p>They're sharing an overpriced dessert when Spencer casually mentions that they could start looking for a place to move in together. Liam nearly chokes on his ice cream, but he nods, because really, like Spencer's saying, it makes sense. They'll both be working in the same area, and their current roommates are both moving away. And he really, really wants to move in with Spencer. It just... doesn't feel possible. He'd imagined something like this, but it's always been a pipe dream. Moving in with a boyfriend has never felt attainable, no matter how much he wants to. But Spencer's staying in Austin, so it will work, and they can start looking for places to live. They'll get lunch in a week or two and compare listings they've found online. And it can actually happen.</p><p>It's at that lunch that Alex Claremont-Diaz calls Liam to ask if <em>he's</em> bi. Not how Liam's doing, not even if Liam's queer, but it he's bi. And dear god. Liam has to spend a good minute with his Bloody Mary before he can even begin to apologize to Spencer, but Spencer just laughs so hard he cries and says he doesn't care. He says it'll be a great story to tell later, and Liam takes another long, long drink in an attempt to process the whirlwind of chaos that is Alex. But they shift from Liam's awkward past into conversations about their future together, and they schedule tours of a few apartments, then FaceTime Spencer's parents for their opinions on things. And it feels like any conversation they've had about their future, so far down the line it's nearly impossible. So Liam just sits there, making choices and going through the motions and waiting for it to all feel like it's happening. </p><p>Maybe, he thinks, it'll feel real when they decide on an apartment. But they tour places, talking about how Spencer's table would fit perfectly in this breakfast nook and they could fit a joint office into this room and still have space for one of Spencer's parents' pull-out couches in case anyone comes to visit, and it still feels like a dream. They pick one, and they agree to keep Spencer's bed and Liam's couch, and it doesn't feel like it's actually happening. They show Spencer's parents the location when they pick them up for a spring break trip to Houston, but it doesn't feel like they'll actually be moving in there together.</p><p>Maybe it will feel real when they've cleared out their current apartments, but even when he sees Spencer's funky-smelling couch sitting outside Goodwill in his rearview mirror, it doesn't feel real. Spencer takes his hand and kisses it, and Liam smiles at him, and it all feels fake. They move in together in two weeks, half his apartment is in boxes and a good portion of it is at the Goodwill behind them, and it still doesn't feel real. </p><p>Maybe it'll feel real when he tells his parents. He ends up doing it via phone call, sitting on his bed while Spencer leans against him and acts like he's not listening. They react about as well as he expected, but they've also finished paying for his college, and their involvement in his life over the past few years has been steadily declining. It's not like this is much of a surprise. So when he gets sick of his dad's shouting and hangs up, when he flops back onto his bed and Spencer climbs up to hold him close and say he's sorry, Liam's not as upset as he could be. He's got a new family, and he can now spend every holiday with them guilt-free. And maybe it's the knowledge that things aren't really going to change much, or the fact that Spencer's cuddling is getting slowly sleepier and infinitely cuter, but he can't bring himself to do anything more than kiss Spencer's forehead and tell him he loves him. Any fallout from this feels as impossible as his moving in with Spencer. </p><p>Maybe, their move in together will feel real when the day comes. Maybe then, it'll really sink in. But he wakes up on a sleeping bag and packs the last of his stuff into a weekender, and it doesn't feel like he's actually moving to share an apartment with Spencer. It certainly feels like he's moving, just not like he's moving in with his boyfriend. Maybe it would feel real when he loads the last of his boxes into Spencer's dad's pickup, but by now, he's so close to them that they'd be helping him move anywhere. So even as he follows Spencer's dad to their new building, even as he's grabbing one end of the couch to help haul it into the elevator, it doesn't feel like he's actually moving in with his boyfriend.</p><p>Spencer's already moved most of his stuff in, so they find him and his mom in the middle of ordering pizza and garlic bread. They walk in as he insists on extra garlic bread, because he and Liam can and will eat an order each. His dad gives them a hard time about leaving all the hard work to them, then teases his wife about not knowing their boys, and Liam feels a warmth in his chest. Spencer sees the little smile and wraps an arm around Liam, and Liam feels more loved than he ever could have imagined. They get most of his stuff moved inside by the time the pizza gets there, and they eat at Spencer's table in the breakfast nook, his parents talking about what a nice area, and a nice apartment, and it seems like they'll be really happy starting their lives together here. And slowly, it starts to feel like they really will get to live here together. </p><p>Spencer's parents take them out to an early dinner and insist on paying, but then they're gone, and it's just him and Spencer in an apartment that's theirs. They're mostly unpacked when Spencer reveals a bottle of champagne and calls Liam to bed, and they cuddle and toast their new home together. And the next morning, Liam's making eggs and coffee's brewing and Spencer comes up behind him to nuzzle into his shoulder with bare feet and sleepy morning kisses. It hits all at once that this is his life now, and Liam has to close his eyes and take a deep breath before he gets overwhelmed. </p><p>When Liam wakes up to a series of texts early one October morning, Spencer's still cuddled up close, whining when Liam shifts away to check his phone and learn that Alex is not only very bi, but also apparently dating the Prince of Wales. Liam is justifiably outraged, but Spencer is waking up laughing at him, all sleepy kisses and owlish blinking in the early light, complaining that if Liam is awake enough to be this livid he can be awake enough to start their coffee for the morning. So maybe Alex got himself a prince, but really, he has Spencer and Spencer's family, so Alex can keep the world's most eligible bachelor all to himself. </p><p>He realizes exactly what this means for Alex a few hours later, when someone texts him a link to some journalist's deep dive into the letters. He's debating contacting Alex, reaching out to see if there's anything he can do or if that would just make it worse. The decision's made for him when a sleezy journalist from Fox News calls in the middle of dinner to ask about their past. The next day, he texts Alex that he'd told him to screw off and is there if Alex needs anything. </p><p>He gets a heavy envelope in the mail two days later, and it's got an invitation for him and a plus one to attend President Ellen Claremont's election night rally. It's got a personal note from Alex on the back, stating in no uncertain terms that he expects liam to be there, and Spencer really wants to go, so they do. Alex runs into him in the most literal sense of the word, stopping long enough for introductions and to borrow their bikes before moving on to the next thing, every bit the tornado he's always been. But Spencer's happy, and they FaceTime his parents from the rally as soon as Texas goes blue, and they're throwing their own party in San Antonio. As the night winds down, as Liam wraps an arm around Spencer and they walk back to their shared apartment and their shared life, he can't imagine ever being happier.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I have spent an ungodly amount of time sitting with no wifi in the past four days (my family traveled from Iowa to Texas and back again), so we interrupt our regularly scheduled study guide programing to bring you this self-indulgent fic about Liam. What can I say. I saw a gay boy with unsupportive parents and went feral. <br/>(Also? Liam says he can't imagine being happier, but he's going to be so happy he cries when Spencer proposes to him.)<br/>--<br/>As always, I'm <a href="https://www.tumblr.com/blog/hms-chill">HMS-Chill</a> on tumblr for fic stuff, and I'd love to chat either there or here. Thanks y'all; stay safe out there!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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